Various types of steamers are used in restaurants or the like for freshening bread-type food products ranging from bread slices to buns, rolls, croissants, bagels and the like. Such steamers are used particularly in large volume food handling operations such as fast-food restaurants and/or drive-in restaurants.
Heretofore, such steamers often have been boiler-type steamers which are fairly expensive and can run into thousands of dollars per unit. Typical steamers are called “flash” steamers wherein water is deposited or sprayed onto the surface of a heated platen which “flashes” or converts the water to steam. The steam impregnates the bread-type food products to freshen the products. If the water is supplied at room temperature or line temperature, the heated platen must be maintain at a very high temperature or be quite robust in order to maintain a sufficiently high temperature to quickly cause the water to reach the flashing point.
The present invention is directed to an extremely simple steamer apparatus which will cost a fraction of existing boiler-type steamers, by using a concept of preheating the water to a point close to the flashing point before spraying the water onto the heated platen. Therefore, the water is instantaneously converted to steam and the food products, correspondingly, are steamed in a matter of seconds. Preheating the water is accomplished without adding any additional heating means whatsoever to the steamer apparatus.